#recursiveimpulse

[asoulofstars]

word prompt: fireflies

Riona was on the porch swing with Grace, leaning into the redhead. Their daughter, five, was running through the yard, trying to get the fireflies to be her friend.

“Why won’t they let me hold them? I’m not trying to catch them forever!” Jane pouted from the yard, her brogue coming out.

Riona laughed, and Grace kissed Riona’s temple.

“Because, Janie, they don’t know your intentions. If you sit and wait by the bushes, they might land on you to say hi,” Grace informed Jane.

Jane did so, still pouting slightly, and reminding Riona immensely of the child’s namesake, despite having no relation to him.

“Does she ever remind you of Patrick?” Riona asked softly.

“All the time,” Grace admitted. “Hopefully he’ll stop chasing fireflies and come home.”

Riona nodded in agreement and watched as their daughter had to fight every instinct to remain still, waiting for the fireflies to land.

[evcryopeneye]

"the gasp that i gusped." [ viktor fucking up english @ kate. incredible ]

@recursiveimpulse

For a moment, she’s so happy that he was A) listening to her story, and B) entertained by it, that the grammatical mistake didn’t register with her. 

Yet, when it did, she couldn’t help but smile and laugh. She creased. That honest and airy honest laugh. A small shake of her head as she tried to gather herself back together again so she could at least speak. 

She was recalling the time she had almost ruined Christmas for the entire city of New York, not that it had been her intention, she had loved the fucking tree as much as the next person but…it had needed to come down. There was something truly New York-y about looking at a beautiful Christmas tree the size of a building and deciding that the only way to save someone was to wreck it. 

Watching it fall in slow motion had been a thing of beauty. Truly magical.

“He didn’t find it funny…” Kate revealed with another laugh, of course Clint hadn’t, “I think it was more the fact the Mayor called Captain America to complain to him about it, he then called Clint and complained about it…and then Clint took it out on me. Was totally worth it.”

[ohsunshine]

anemone :   how does your muse view the world ;   as a cruel   &   unforgiving place ,   a land full of wonders ,   or something in - between ?  where does that world view come from   (   what experiences ,   life lessons ,   etc .   ) ?  

for armand :)))

very much somewhere in the middle. he's got first-hand experience with the worst of humanity, and the way that humans can treat people they see as lesser/weaker/not even really people. but he's also been around for a very long time and he's always so thrilled by humanity's new inventions and the fun little things people make to occupy their time.

i think his own experiences have made him cruel and insecure and unstable, and he definitely has days where he doesn't think there's anything good in the world, but then he discovers. idk. bluetooth and suddenly humanity has endless capacity for creation and they're the smartest creatures in the world.

it's not just technological advances, either. i think he's genuinely enamoured by people - he likes skimming surface thoughts when he's out and about, which was once taught to him as a means to find Bad People to feed upon, but eventually just became a habit. and so he gets to hear/feel the affection new parents might feel for their baby, or the joy someone feels watching their dog lope around the park, and those little sparks of humanity are a real comfort to him.

[chitteringbeast]

“If you keep struggling, you may lose a limb.” [ the machine herald @ lark, impassively. ]

Lark wasn't used to being the small one. Perhaps somewhere in his reptile brain he could admit that magical or arcane beings were stronger than him but not out loud. Magic was just not a skill he had. He was all brute strength and thick skin. Could take and deliver a mean punch.

Feeling helpless. That was a new one when it didn't involve his mother. Of course he was a fighter and as soon as this strange being said that his thick tail lashed out in a burst of energy that was slowly waning the more he did struggle.

"Get yer freaky fuckin' bug hands off me!" Of course he thought it was some weird fairy. Biggest and strangest fairy he had ever seen that was for sure.

His head jolted forward to snap his teeth as close to his face as he could.

[saturnmused]

@recursiveimpulse asked: ” so that’s a thing for you, huh ? duly noted. “

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐔𝐑𝐆𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐂𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑 his face in a mixture of embarrassment and shame is powerful, but jayce just manages to skirt the urge, instead working jaw as he pointedly finds a place to stare at, beyond the other man working on being an utter 𝐓𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄 in their workspace. he doesn't have much of a sense of restraint around viktor, never has ; but it's different now that they've been intimate, has a more charged effect to the space between them, to the composure that jayce can manage around other. they have to be professional in the workspace ;

& he gets that, but it's utterly 𝐔𝐍𝐅𝐀𝐈𝐑 when other uses that to his seeming advantage, teases jayce with the proximity but the knowledge that he has to withhold obvious distraction until their task of the day is attended to. ❝ i doubt you're just going to let that go, right ? ❞ jayce anticipates having this knowledge used 𝐀𝐆𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐓 him in future. maybe not the immediate future, but viktor's a genius, & the information is bound to be stored somewhere for later retrieval. he gives a soft sigh, then a low chuckle, because fuck it, he might as well have fun with it too. ❝ you're too observant for your own good, anyone ever tell you that ? it works 𝐁𝐎𝐓𝐇 ways, you know. i know you have . . . things too. ❞

[evcryopeneye]

Kate blinks at him. Confused for a moment. She wasn’t sure what he heard but she couldn’t hear it. For a moment she lifts her head, looks around, like she is trying to find the sound on the air…and then her attention comes back to the conversation. 

“My bow…” she starts again, she had managed to fuck up her compound bow by firing it without a release - in her defense it was an emergency and she’d needed the extra power and range, but it wasn’t exactly, healthy for the weapon. Hell, she’d managed to derail it, the string had failed and come off the wheels that she could fix. It was easy to restring the bow, it was harder to deal with the trigger. 

“So like, with a compound bow you really can’t pull it back with your hands, the tracks in the wheels are too thin, just the slightest little wiggle and you will just…derail it…like I did.” A sheepish smile. She was, in a roundabout way, trying to ask him for help. 

Kate did not have the knowledge or skills to engineer and build something, she understood the principal of how and why it worked, she was after all, an expert archer. She knew her equipment…but making it was another beast. 

“Okay I fucked up my bow and lost the trigger for it and I’ma need your help to fix it.”

[ LINGER ] * your muse gives my muse lingering touches.

The hair on the back of Viktor's neck prickled, his heartrate quickening so suddenly that for a moment he felt genuinely dizzy. Not quite the kind of palpitations he was used to but--had his heart skipped a beat? Kate's hand was on his arm and she was talking, leaning close while they read together, but the words weren't registering. They swam into Viktor's head as language but floated out as birdsong, incomprehensible but enjoyable.

Why was he this distracted? He tried to centre himself. Focus, Viktor. But the slightest movement of her fingers made him forget what she'd been saying all over again.

Without meaning to, Viktor sat back, his arm slipping out from under her hand as a natural consequence of the movement. He rested his own hand where hers had been in the same way one might touch their cheek after having it kissed.

"Ah... I'm sorry, start again. I was listening, I promise--there's just so much background noise."

There was barely any background noise.

[byteing]

im violently resisting the urge to make a single-muse blog for viktor (no! no! no! the whole point of this blog was to shove all my muses in one place!) so instead i made an in-character side blog. you know, like people did back in the day. for aesthetics and in-character blogging. for fun.

don’t worry too much about the logistics of it ok. “how is he reblogging gifsets of himself” who gives a shit “which timeline is it” all of them “is he still multiverse and multi ship” yes somehow “why does he have a tumblr” JUST TRUST ME

anyway it’s @recursiveimpulse because that phrase is stuck in my head. mind the description though: EVERYTHING on there is in character including asks, IMs, tags, etc.

[asoulofstars]

word prompt: skilled

Despite the fact that Riona has one of the worst cases of self-image (self-esteem?) issues imaginable, Riona does know that she is skilled. She's actually extremely confident in her work, whether that's the connections she has talking with the stars or doing her forensics work.

She is fairly confident in her writing, because she surrounds herself with people who are creative in their own ways, and creativity feeds off of community and inspiration. She is pleased with the way that she can keep a garden together, even if she learned from Aislinn and Glenna Holmstead. (But she also thinks it's a skill to be able to learn like that, because not everyone can.)

She's also very proud of her ability to pick up languages, even if she doesn't quite have the ability for pronunciation. She'll never sound like a native speaker, but she does make great strides in her fluency with little effort.

Riona mostly doubts herself when it comes to her people skills, even though she shouldn't. She's kind and empathetic; she does know how to read people, even if she doesn't think she does. There are certain people that she feels very sure about, because she knows them like the back of her hand, but that doesn't mean that she believes those skills transfer to other people, even when they do. She's quite emotionally intelligent, and it helps her a lot, though she'll never acknowledge it.

The one thing that she'll never understand is cooking. (Or baking.) If it has to do with food, beyond small preparations, just leave her out of it. The laws of physics stop working for her, and she cannot form a good relationship with cooking to save her life. She believes it's better for everyone if she stops trying.

[asoulofstars]

word prompt: shame

Shame.

(Noun)

1a: a painful emotion caused by consciousness of guilt, shortcoming, or impropriety

1b: the susceptibility to such emotion

(have you no shame?)

2: a condition of humiliating disgrace or disrepute : ignominy

(the shame of being arrested)

3a: something that brings censure or reproach

also : something to be regretted : pity

(it's a shame you can't go)

3b: a cause of feeling shame

~*~

Shame.

(Verb)

shamed; shaming

transitive verb

1: to bring shame to : disgrace

shamed the family name

2: to put to shame by outdoing

3: to cause to feel shame

4: to force by causing to feel guilty

shamed into confessing

~*~

Shame.

She'd often wondered to herself. What was the difference between shame and guilt? Well. Guilt implied fault. Shame just was. Shame was a feeling. Shame was what made her believe in her own guilt, even if her therapist could make her logically see that it wasn't her fault.

But it was a double-edged sword, wasn't it? Shame on one side, guilt on the other. Her parents' words ringing in her ears at all times. The devil's words eating at her, even if she'd never let it know that.

But if it was shame that ruled her life, if it wasn't actually guilt, then why did she find it so hard to believe that other people didn't see her the way she saw herself? Because if she was guilty, then of course they'd see her that way. It would make sense. But if she was just ashamed, if she just wanted to be invisible so that no one else ever had to see her, then that was all on her.

~*~

Guilt.

(Noun)

1: the fact of having committed a breach of conduct especially violating law and involving a penalty

(A jury will determine the defendant's guilt or innocence.)

broadly : guilty conduct

2a: the state of one who has committed an offense especially consciously

(His guilt was written in his face.)

2b: feelings of deserving blame especially for imagined offenses or from a sense of inadequacy : self-reproach

3: a feeling of deserving blame for offenses

(Wracked by guilt, he confessed his affairs.)

~*~

Guilt

(Verb)

guilted; guilting; guilts

transitive verb

:to cause (someone) to feel guilty

(Don't listen to Mommy. She's trying to guilt you.—Gary Shteyngart)

: to persuade (someone) to do something by causing feelings of guilt

(… guilting her to eat her own green beans because "there are starving children in Africa."—Katie Boerema—often followed by into)

(A far stronger compulsion is created when people think they're being watched, as a mildly impressive 86 percent of people were guilted into washing their hands in one study.—Steve Lipsher)

~*~

She believed that sometimes, she wanted to be guilty.

It would be easier if she were guilty.

[chitteringbeast]

Your muse straightens  an  article  of  my muse's  clothes.

[ hi lark. Viktor has to smooth your shirt down or he’s going to die. ]

Lark didn't wear shirts often. Even when he was more...human. Years of living alone had his sense of modesty practically gone. The few shirts he did own were old and ratty. Faded from sun and salt with small holes from getting snagged on shutes and claws.

Hell, the only reason he even wore shorts was because he knew other creatures didn't always like it when you walked around naked. Plus, this form was impractical with its genitals.

On colder days, rare as they were on the island, he would put on more clothes. He didn't realize that the shirt he currently had on was riding up as he worked on a piece of overhang on the roof. Patching up a spot to make it less drafty for his longterm guest.

He felt cold hands brush his hips to tug his shirt down. He grunted and looked over his shoulder at the other male.

Thick tail curled behind Viktor on the ground, big enough to use as a seat...which Lark often did himself. Still, there was worry etched in his eyes as he peered at him for a long moment before turning back to the task at hand.

"Careful. Grounds real unsteady 'round here."

[saturnmused]

@recursiveimpulse asked: are you married ?

𝐇𝐄'𝐒 𝐅𝐎𝐂𝐔𝐒𝐄𝐃 𝐎𝐍 something else, so question 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐋𝐘 enters periphery until it registers in brain & has him turning on heel to face new coworker. a personal question: they had both actively avoided those until now. but jayce doesn't feel threatened by it, necessarily ; he just wonders where the 𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐈𝐎𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐘 is coming from. ❝ no, i'm not married, ❞ he answers after a moment, brows raising on forehead as he contemplates how to ask about inquiry itself.

❝ it's just never come up before. i've always been married to my work, if that makes sense. ❞ & he suspects that viktor is much the 𝐒𝐀𝐌𝐄 as him: wholly & undoubtedly dedicated to his work. ❝ what about you ? ❞ but he asks, because he would never want to assume anything about coworker, especially regarding romantic territory. he doesn't know viktor's experiences, & he can't judge either way with his own 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐘 to be focused on only one thing at a time.

[evcryopeneye]

@recursiveimpulse asked: 「 BARE 」 : for sender to undress in front of receiver [ for kate… context? I hardly know ‘er! ]

Oh. This was. Different.  

Kate picked up the book. Immediately opened it to a random page as she stared at the words on the page without taking them in. She thinks they are Latin. Maybe? They’re another language. Doesn’t look Greek…she would know if they were Greek after all she knew lots of stuff about the Greeks. 

Ever so carefully. She lowered the book. Stared over it at him as she snuck a peek. 

Why she was being this shy she didn’t know. It wasn’t like she hadn’t been with boys. She had been with several and wasn’t ashamed of it. This was the first time she had felt shy about someone. 

There had never been a moment in any of those relationships where she had been nervous. 

This though. This did. There was a difference between liking someone and liking someone and she had liked people but not like liking them.  

Kate slid down the wall a little where she was sat, slumping. 

“So…” she answers, her face covered with the book. “What’s this in, like, pre-Latin?”

[asoulofstars]

I love that I can always count on Byte to just spam me with memes. 💜💜💜

[evcryopeneye]

@recursiveimpulse asked: "I feel like a jukebox. Juice - juice box. Empty juice box." [ @ Kate. they are exhausted besties ]

“Okay, okay,” a soft nod of her head, her words are quiet as she moves, hands plucking the book out of his hands and she took a deep breath. She wasn’t going to tell him to stop, she knew it wouldn’t go down well, and he was much like her, he would go and go and go until he simply passed out. Instead she slips a finger into the book to keep the page as she pulls the blanket off the back of the chair and flicks it open.

Kate didn’t bother to ask if he wanted it, simply draped it over him as she awkwardly held the book and awkwardly held the blanket. Both tasks were hard to do with one hand, but she managed it eventually. 

“There - I will look after the book, and I will keep reading, and if I see the keywords I will wake you up.” Fucking lie. She had no intention of, she would mark it for him so he could find what he was looking for later, but she wasn’t going to wake him up. He needed rest, and while he might have been pissed for all of ten minutes with her, she was pretty sure if the roles were reversed…he would have done the same thing. Maybe albeit less softly.

[ohsunshine]

❛ i have nothing i could offer you. ❜ [ vampire viktor @ astarion perhaps ] / ( @recursiveimpulse )

"Nonsense, darling," Astarion says airily, swapping his wine glass between hands to rest his free one on Viktor's shoulder. It trails up to cup the side of his neck for the briefest of moments, thumb brushing over skin, and then he withdraws, gesturing vastly with his wine.

"Everyone has something. I, for example, have my dashing good looks, my... well, to tell you everything would be rather overplaying my hand, don't you think?" He smiles, but he turns away before Viktor might be able to register that it doesn't reach his eyes.

"You - you have your brains, for one. You're a smart little thing, aren't you? It's quite something."

[ohsunshine]

“You and your awful little games.” [ Viktor @ Jinx. AU where Viktor lives in the Undercity as a scientist/works for Silco/something instead of in Piltover I guess idk!! ] / ( @recursiveimpulse )

"Awful. Little. Games?" With each word, she scoots their chair an inch closer to his, until she's breathing in his ear. While she's close, they peer over his shoulder and inspect what he's doing, watching long fingers working with tiny pieces of metal. They can hand it to him, he's far more precise and delicate than they've ever been - but their kit gets results just the same, and who gives a shit what it looks like? Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, shrapnel to shrapnel. However the saying goes. He has his specialties, she has hers.

Still, she keeps her sort-of respect for him buried deep, because when they probe the feeling, it feels an awful lot like weakness, and that can't be allowed. And if she comes in here most evenings to prod and poke at his projects -- well, Silco needs to know what he's up to, after all, and what is she if not an extension of him?

"I wouldn't do it like that." She reaches around him, careful, like with everyone, not to actually touch him, and scoops up his project in one hand, holding it in a not-so-careful grip.

"Games, Vik? You're all --" She stops and exhales, dropping his work back on the desk in front of him, already bored with it. When she turns her head to look at him, it's with a blank-eyed smile that, to anyone who didn't know better, might make her look young and innocent. "I like games, don't you?"